40,000 25,000 7. For transportation of cadets discharged from 6. For transportation of materials and officers' bag- 400 1,100 50,000 [Civil works-harbor improvements, light-houses, &c.] 25. For construction of a sea-wall and breakwater on great Brewster Island, for the protection and improvement of the ship-channel into the harbor of Boston, Massachusetts, 26. For construction of dike to Drunken Dick shoal, Charleston harbor, South Carolina, 27. For construction of dike for closing Hog Island, in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, 28. [For light-house on the Delaware break-water,] 29. [For completing dike from Goat Island, and removing the light to the new light-house,] 30. [For site of Marine Hospital at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,] These three items, 28, 29, 30, are introduced here from former estimates, to show somewhat more fully, the miscellaneous civil objects which the War Department has under its superintendence, (C)-THE MILITARY ACADEMY AT WEST POINT,— (embracing the personnel, the matériel, and the collaterals thereto.) 1. The Departments of Education, and Incidents thereto, viz: 1. For the Department of Engineering-in the purchasing and making models to illustrate the course of military and civil engineering, 2. For the Department of Philosophy-in the purchase, repair, and preservation of philosophical apparatus, &c., 3. For the Department of Mathematics in the purchase, repair, and preservation of mathematical instruments, &c., 4. For the Department of Drawing-in procuring models for topography, and frames for models; procuring paints, pencils, brushes, and colors, &c., for landscapes, &c., 5. For the Department of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology-in procuring apparatus and materials connected with experiments and illustrations therein, &c., 6. For the Department of Artillery and Cavalryin the purchase of materials for making up ammunition and fire-works; also tools and materials for making models, and for various other operations connected with this Department, 7. For the Department of Tactics and Fencing-in the purchase of gloves, plastrons, maske, broad swords, &c., 8. For the Department of Ethics, History, and 8. For printing apparatus and materials for printing 9. For salaries of clerks to quartermaster, treasurer, 10. For miscellaneous and incidental expenses, of oil, 11. For expenses of board of visitors, All of the foregoing estimates (as here in aggregates) are given in minute details in the originals, coming from the superintendent of the Academy in the first instance. 550 - 89,960 00 This estimate is made by the Paymaster General with his wonted minuteness of detail, which shows that, if one bureau cannot estimate for the whole, each branch of these estimates should go to its proper bureau, or else all should go to the superintendent of the Institution, II. The Department of Public Buildings, and matériel, and other expenses of the Institution. 1. For repairs and improvements of all kinds, and materials therefor, 9,000 II. The Indian Department, for the Civilization of Indian Tribes.* 1. For annuities in money, permanent or limi-] ted, 2. For annuities in goods, permanent or limited, 3. For purchase of provisions and presents, 4. For support of farmers and purchasing of im- 5. For support of carpenters, and purchasing of 6. For support of blacksmiths, and expense of 7. For support of millwrights and other mechanics, 9. For compensation and contingent expenses of 10. For Indian agents and sub agents, and their con. 857,513 that their construction should be adapted to this latter arrangement in the first instance, to prevent the responsibility for any negligence in their construction being evaded by the Engineer Department, and thrown on those who make the repairs at distant intervals of time. Also the construction of lodges (in like manner called barracks) for the men enlisted and employed about Arsenals and Armories, is under the direction of the Ordnance Department; but as these lodges or quarters are never turned over to the Quartermaster's Department as barracks for soldiers, the only objection that here presents itself, is, that there is not a more discriminating technicality adopted, by which these might be called houses, or quarters, or lodges, for the operatives of the Armories and Arsenals, leaving the specific term barracks exclusively appropriated to the soldiery, and always under the Quartermaster's Department, whether they be located in Forts or otherwise. Thus, also, it is, in regard to the functions assigned to the Engineer Department, under the direction of the Secretary of War: some of them are purely military, whilst others are civil or commercial, as distinguished in the above classification. And as to the general supervision of the affairs of the Military Academy, which is at present assigned also to the Engineer Department, (except the estimates for the pay of officers, cadets, &c.,) it would appear that the Superintendent of that Institution, who does in fact make all its estimates and disbursements, might so conduct the affairs of the Academy by correspondence direct with the Secretary of War, without the intervention of the Engineer Department, (just as the Commissary General of purchases formerly did, without the intervention of the Quartermaster's Department)-for the details of this Institution appertain as much, in some respects, to the superintendency of one military bureau as another, and in other respects they have no relation whatever with either. The reasoning of this note applies with equal force to the Topographical or Civil Engineering, and to the Indian Department, both of which are purely of the nature of civil Institutions, though placed under the direction of the Secretary of War, as many other odds and ends are, in relation to mineral lands, &c., &c. The estimates for appropriations for prosecuting our system of civilization of the Indian tribes (some 40 or 50 in number) are very large, but consist for the most part of nearly the same items for every tribe, as here given, variant, however, in different instances, according to the terms of particular treaties, which need not be repeated here, under the particular head of each tribe. The estimates for the pay of superintendents, Indian agents and sub agents, and commissioners for making treaties with Indian tribes, &c., are yet more fluctuating; but, for the sake of illustration, are included in this enumeration. The estimates for preventing and suppressing Indian hostilities properly assimilate with the estimates for military operations generally, and should come out of them, as should those for the protection of the northern frontier, &c, III. DEPARTMENTS OF THE NAVAL ESTABLISHMENT. [There being no designated Pay Department for the entire Naval service, as in the War Department, and no corresponding Quartermaster, Subsistence, Ordnance, and Engineer Departments, specifically so termed, in the organization of the Navy Department, these estimates for the Naval Establishment are not susceptible of a like arrangement or classification with those of the War Department, without hazarding more detriment in the attempt, than benefit to any object of perspicuity or system that might result therefrom, however advantageous to those objects it might have been, had the reorganization of the Navy Department entertained more regard for its analogies therewith, as far as they would serve. It was not deemed proper or expedient, therefore, to attempt to introduce here, the approximation there made to a discrimination between the personnel and the matériel of the military estimates, according to the affinities, the analogy, and the sequence of subjects; but rather to leave those for the naval service to conform for the most part with the arrangements, as they exist, in reference to the respective Bureaus of the Department-conforming, nevertheless, as nearly as practicable, in other respects, to the analogies of the former classification; and resting on the consolation, withal, that a single step made in imparting more method to a desultory practice, affords an earnest to the great achievement of it at a future day.] THE PERSONNEL and Materiel, WITH THEIR CONCOMITANTS, AS ESTIMATED FOR IN THE DIFFERENT Bureaus. (4)-DEPARTMENT OF YARDS AND DOCKS. I. Pay Department or Division. 1. For pay of officers attached to recruiting stations at Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, and New Orleans, In the original, this estimate is given in detail, as to one Commander, one Surveyor, one and two lieutenants, and two midshipmen, at each station, making the above total; but the other recruiting expenses are no where specified, for the naval service, as they are for the army and marine corps, in their proper places, perhaps because they are included under some general heads without designating the recruiting service. 40,800 286,006 II. Department of Public Works, Buildings, &c. 1. For the construction, extension, completion, repairs, and improvement of various public works connected with the several navy yards, In the original, this estimate is given in aggregates only for the specified objects at each yard, which aggregates make the above total. 2. For marine hospital buildings and the dependencies thereof, at Boston, New York, Washington, Norfolk, and Pensacola, In the original, this estimate is not given in detail, but in aggregates only, for those objects at each yard, making the above total. 3. For magazines, repairs of, &c., at Boston, New York, Washington, and Norfolk, In the original, this estimate is given in aggregates only, for those objects at each yard, making the above total. III. Department or Division of Contingents. 767,657 64,046 1,400 1. For the contingent expenses of freight and transportation of materials and stores for yards and docks; for printing and stationery; for books, maps, models, and drawings; for purchase and repairs of fire engines, and expense of attendance; for purchase and maintenance of horses and oxen, and driving team; for carts, timberwheels, and workmen's tools; for postage of letters on public service; for coals and other fuel; for candles and oil; for flags, awnings, and packing boxes; and for incidental labor at navy yards, |(B)—DEPARTMENT OF ORDNANCE & HYDROGRAPHY. (Ordnance.) I. Pay Department or Division of Ordnance. 1. For pay of officers on ordnance duty, II. Munitions of War, and Incidentals thereto. In the original, the first of these three estimates is given in detail as III. Department of Contingents of Ordnance. 17,300 158,190 21,000 - 140,000 32,200 IV. Pay Department or Division of Hydrography. 1. For pay of officers employed under the head of Hydrography, In the original, this estimate is given in detail, as all estimates for pay generally are. 21,300 V. Department of Instruments, &c., in Hydrography. 8,000 2. For the purchase of books and charts for the 6,000 (C)—DEPARTMENT OF CONSTRUCTION, EQUIPMENT, AND REPAIRS. I. Pay Department or Division. - 2,554,650 1. For the pay of officers, and seamen, including the Engineer corps, required for public vessels kept in commission, and receiving vessels, This estimate, large as it is, is given in the original in a single aggregate, though it is obvious that as great facilities exist in this Bureau, for reducing this estimate to its elements, so as to designate the grades, and numbers of officers, seamen and others, with the rate and aggre gate of pay required for each grade, &c., as exist in other bureaus which do give such detailed estimates. II. Department of the Construction and Repairs of Vessels. 1. For repair of vessels in ordinary, for wear and tear of vessels in commission, including fuel for steamers, and the purchase of hemp, It is equally obvious that this estimate might be reduced to its elements so as to designate the different objects, with at least some ap proach to precision, and show the probable amount required for the aggregates of each kind, if not the specific sum for each object. 2,500,000 III. Department of Contingents for the Naval Service.. 1. For expenditures under the head of "enumerated contingents," for objects under direction of this Bureau, This estimate, given in a single aggregate in the original, might also have been reduced to its elements, (as professed to be "enumerated" but not,) so as to designate the most material objects at least, and the amount required for the aggregate of each kind or class of objects. 280,000 2. For rations-one per day, at 20 cents each, for 1,113 marines, attached to vessels for sea service, 81,471 It is perceived that these three classes of estimates are given in great minuteness, with the aggregates of each class, and the grand total. II. Division or Department of Clothing, (as Commissary of Purchases,) including Contingent Losses, Transportation, and other Incidental Expenses. 1. ("For clothing of every description" says the offi. III. Division or Department of "Small Stores" or (E) DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 1. Division or Department of Surgery and Medicine. 1. For "Surgeons' necessaries and appliances" for the naval service, as far as coming under the cognizance of this Bureau-for 2 ships of the line, 7 frigates, 14 sloops of war, 6 brigs, 6 schooners, 5 steamers, 4 store-ships, 8 receiving and surveying vessels, and for 6 navy yards, and the naval school at Annapolis, This estimate is made up of the aggregates required for each vessel, and navy yard, and the naval school, without the details in regard to either, or even the name of a single one of "surgeons' necessaries and appliances." If compared with the like estimates of the department of surgery for the ariny, it would be difficult to conceive why there should be so near an approximation to detail in one, while the other is entirely exempt from it. 2. (For naval Hospitals and the naval Asylum no estimate is made, because these are supplied by the naval hospital fund.) 40,200 I. 3. (For the pay, &c., &c., of Surgeons and Assis- (F)-DEPARTMENTS OF THE MARINE CORPS,— Paymaster's Department.. 1. For pay of officers, musicians, and privates; inclu- This estimate, in the original, is given in detail for each class of offcers, musicians, privates, and other particulars, so as to show the amount of each, individually, and the several aggregates of each class, making the grand total as above, and leaving nothing to be guessed at. II. Quartermaster's Department. 1. For provisions or subsistence of 547 enlisted marines, (including non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates,) washerwomen and matron, consisting of one ration per day, at 16 cents each, 2. For clothing for 1,156 enlisted marines, (including non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates,) at $33 dollars per annum, with 300 watch coats, at $8 each, 3. For fuel, consisting of 2,209 cords of wood, at $7 per cord, to be distributed in due proportions to officers in different latitudes, also at Washington, Norfolk, Pensacola, Philadelphia, NewYork, and Charlestown, Massachusetts, These three estimates are given in the original in nearly every practicable detail, except that the 2d is per capitem, for the most part, instead of being per article. 199,280 31,944 40, 548 6. For barracks, repairs of, and rent of temporary barracks, and offices for commanding officers, 7. For contingencies, consisting of freight, ferriage, toll, wharfage, compensation to judge advocates for attending courts-martial, per diem for laborers, house-rent in lieu of quarters, burial of deceased marines, printing, stationery, forage, postage, pursuit of deserters, candles, oil, straw, furniture, bed sacks, spades, axes, shovels, picks, carpenters' tools, keeping of a horse for the messenger, pay of matron, washerwomen, and porter at hospital headquarters, and pay of three clerks in the Quartermaster's department, These four estimates are not given in detail, in the original, but only in their respective aggregates, as above stated. The concluding item of the Quartermaster's estimate, viz: 8th, for the purchase of a site, and to commence the erection of barracks at Charlestown, Massachusetts, 850,000-for the same at Brooklyn, New York, 850,000-for the same at Gosport, Virginia, g50,000-and to commence the erection of barracks at Pensacola, 825,000-is not essentially an annual estimate, but an occasional one; yet, as the aggregate for each of these objects is large, it might have comported with the spirit and policy of the legislature in requiring specific estimates, as far as practicable, to have accompanied it, with something like a detail of the prices for sites, and the different descriptions of materials, and the quantities proposed for the construction of the respective barracks, &c. The practice of making esti mates by the lump for commencing" the construction of public buildings, without any detail of plan or material, either in kind or quantity, generally results in committing Congress to the completion of edifices they would never have otherwise authorized. 4,305 8,000 6,000 20, 281 (G)-DEPARTMENT OF NAVY PENSIONS. I. Department or Division of Navy Pensions, proper. 1. For pay of pensions to navy invalid pensioners disabled since the revolution, 2. For pay of pensions to widows and orphans of offi- II. Department or Division of Marine Pensions. 1. For pay of pensions to marine invalid pensioners, disabled since the revolution, 2. For pay of pensions to widows and orphans of marines, officers, and privates, disabled since the revolution, III. Department or Division of Privateer Pensions. 2. For pay of pensions to widows and orphans of The official estimate for the payment of Navy Pensions, of which the above is a suggested analysis and classification, is given under three heads only, (instead of six,) making the above total of 855,000, viz: "To pay Navy Invalid Pensioners during the fiscal year ending the 30th June, 1848, "To pay the Pensions of Widows of Officers, Seamen, and Marines, during the fiscal year ending the 30th June, 1848, "To pay the Pensions of Invalids who were wounded on board of private armed vessels during the late war, 36,000 16,000 3,000 But it may be satisfactorily shown that each of these three heads of the estimate is composed of different classes of Pensioners, if we have reference to the diverse nature of the services in which they, or their principals, were engaged: which would probably afford a better basis for their classification, than that which they are made to assume; thereby imparting a distinctness to each, as above suggested, which could not otherwise be easily attained. And it might be inferred, without noting the exception thereto, that this estimate embraces all the expenditures required for the payment of Navy Pensions during the year. But it happens that the Navy Revolutionary Pensioners (who by the by were never very numerous) are not practically, or in legal technicality, embraced in the cate gory of Navy Pensioners at all, they having been, by provision of law, embraced with and put on the footing of Revolutionary Pensioners who were disabled in the military or land service; and therefore are provided for by the indefinite appropriation of the act of the 7th June, 1832, and not included in any yearly estimate, (or should not be.) It is proper further to remark here, respecting the Privateer Pensions, that there never was any distinct provision made in the way of Pensions for persons who were dis abled or died in the service of private armed vessels during the Revolutionary war, or their widows and orphans; the dividends of prizes and prize money allotted to each, by law, at that period, serving in such capacity, having been deemed adequate, probably, for all contingencies, exclusive of any separate provision of this sort. Therefore the Privateer Pension fund for the support of the widows and orphans, of persons slain, and for the maintenance of persons wounded and disabled on board of private armed vessels of the United States in any engagement with the enemy, had no existence until established by the act of the 26th June, 1812, "concerning letters of marque, prizes, and prize goods." In fine, a thorough examination and comparison of the foregoing exhibit of estimates, in every aspect, and particularly in regard to the diversity of details and aggregates existing between the estimates for objects of the same kind or denominations in the different Departments and Bureaus, would tend greatly to remove the impediments that embarrass the important theme of establishing a consistency between the various branches of estimates for the support of Government, as well as between the three correla tive schemes of estimates, appropriations, and accounts of expenditures. Such an object, once attained, would impress great simplicity on the major part of the fiscal operations of the Government, in all time. A FUNDAMENTAL LAW RELATING TO ACCOUNTING, THE ADJUSTMENT OF BALANCES, &c. [In connection with the foregoing survey of the great ends of Revenue, in the subjects of annual estimates, appropriations, and accounts of expenditures, for the fiscal year, which it has been deemed eligible to introduce here, at the conclusion of the chapter on the operations of the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, there cannot be a more appropriate finish given to the recitals on this middle ground of transition between the functions of the Secretary's office proper, and those of the various accounting Bureaus of his department, than to insert, entire, the act of the 1st of May, 1820, which is now in full force in every essential respect, and constitutes the principal fulcrum on which the great system of checks and balances, in treasury operations of accounting, turns. The perusal of that act, in this connection, will be more impressive than the most scrutinizing examination of it in an abstract or isolated sense-besides the great convenience it will afford for the frequent reference it may be found necessary to make to it in the sequel of these chapters.] An Act in addition to the several Acts for the Establishment and Regulation of the Treasury, War, and Navy Departments. SEC. 1. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause to be carried to the account of the surplus fund, any moneys, appropriated for the Department of War, or of the Navy, which may remain unexpended in the Treasury, or in the hands of the Trea surer, as agent for those departments, whenever he shall be informed by the Secretaries of those departments, that the object for which the appropriation was made has been effected. And it shall be the duty of the Secretaries of War and Navy Departments, to cause any balance of moneys drawn out of the Treasury, which shall remain unexpended, after the object for which the appropriation was made shall be offected, to be repaid to the Treasury of the United States; and such moneys, when so repaid, shall be carried to the surplus fund. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments, to lay before Congress, on the first day of February, of each year, a statement of the appropriations of the preceding year, for their departments respectively, showing the amount appropriated under each specific head of appropriation, the amount expended under each, and the balance remaining unexpended, either in the Treasury, or in the Treasurer's hands, as agent of the War or Navy Departments, on the thirty-first December preceding: And it shall be further the duty of the Secretaries aforesaid, to estimate the probable demands which may remain on each appropriation, and the balance shall be deducted from the estimates of their departments, respectively, for the service of the current year; and accounts shall also be annually rendered, in manner and form as aforesaid, exhibiting the sums expended out of the estimates aforesaid, and the balance, if any, which may remain on hand, together with such information, connected with the same, as shall be demed proper. And whenever any moneys appropriated to the Department of War, or of the Navy, shall remain unexpended in the hands of the Treasurer, as agent of either of those departments, for more than two years after the expiration of the calendar year in which the act of appropriation shall have been passed, or to which it refers, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of such department to inform the Secretary of the Treasury of the fact, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall thereupon cause such moneys to be carried to the account of the surplus fund: Provided, That when an act making an appropriation shall assign a longer duration for the completion of its object, no transfer of any unexpended balance, to the account of the surplus fund, shall be made until the expiration of the time fixed in such act. SEC. 3. In the settlement of the accounts of the War Department, for services or supplies accruing prior to the first of July, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, the expenditures shall be charged to arrearages; and the balances of public money hereafter recovered out of advances made in the War Department for services or supplies prior to the date aforesaid, shall be returned to the Treasury, and, by the Secretary of the Treasury, be carried to the surplus fund. SEC. 4. Nothing contained in the act of March third, one thousand eight hundred and nine, entitled "An Act further to amend the several acts for the establishment and regulation of the Treasury, War, and Navy Departments," shall be so construed, as to allow any appropriations whatever for the service of one year to be transferred to another branch of expenditure in a different year, nor shall any ap propriations be deemed subject to be transferred, under the provisions of the abovementioned act, after they shall have been placed in the hands of the Treasurer, as agent of the War or Navy Departments. SEC. 5. The abovementioned act of the third of March, one thousand eight hundred and nine, shall be, and the same is hereby, so amended, that the President shall be authorized to direct a portion of the moneys appropriated for any one of the following branches of expenditure in the Military Department, viz: For the subsistence of the army, for forage, for the medical and hospital department, for the quartermaster's department; to be applied to any other of the abovementioned branches of expenditure in the same department; and that the President shall be also further authorized to direct a portion of the moneys appropriated for any of the following branches of expenditure in the Naval Department, viz: For provisions, for medicine and hospital stores, for repairs of vessels, for clothing; to be applied to any other of the abovementioned branches of expenditure in the same department; and that no transfers of appropriation, from or to other branches of expenditure, shall be hereafter made. SEC. 6. No contract shall hereafter be made by the Secretary of State, or of the Treasury, or of the Department of War, or of the Navy, except under a law authorizing the same, or under an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment; and excepting also, contracts for the subsistence and clothing of the army or navy, and contracts by the quartermaster's department, which may be made by the Secretaries of those departments. SEC. 7. No land shall be purchased on account of the United States, except under a law authorizing such purchase. SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to annex to the annual estimates of the appropriations required for the public service, a statement of the appropriations for the service of the year which may have been made by former acts; and, also, a statement of the sums remaining in the Treasury, or in the hands of the Treasurer, as agent of the War and Navy Departments, from the appropriations of former years, estimating the amount of those sums which will not be required to defray expenses incurred in a previous year, and showing the whole amount which will be subject to the disposition of the executive government in the year to which the estimates apply. SEC. 9. The second section of the act, entitled "an Act making appropriations for the payment of the arrearages which have been incurred for the support of the military establishment previous to the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and seventeen," passed on the sixteenth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, be, and is hereby, repealed. [APPROVED, May 1, 1820.] |